“Yeah, both of them,” Matt said, thinking of the grandmother and mother who shared the name. “I think we’re going to need a lot of those amulets they make,” he added grimly.
Mrs. Flowers opened her mouth, but Meredith spoke, still focused on thoughts of her own.
“You know, Stefan and Elena may not have given up on their far, far away thing after all,” she said sadly. “And since at this point none of us may even live to make it to our own colleges…” She shrugged.
Matt was still squeezing her hand when Bonnie dashed in the front door, keening.
She tried to speed through the foyer toward the stairs, avoiding the kitchen, but Matt released Meredith and they both dashed up to block her. Instantly, everyone was in combat mode. Meredith grasped Bonnie’s arm tightly. Mrs. Flowers came into the foyer, wiping her hands on a dish towel.
“Bonnie, what happened? Is it Shinichi and Misao? Are we being attacked?”
Meredith asked quietly but with the intensity to cut through hysteria.
Something shot like a bolt of ice through Matt’s body. No one really knew where Shinichi and Misao were right now. Perhaps in the thicket that was all that was left of the Old Woods — perhaps right here at the boardinghouse. “Elena!” he shouted.
“Oh, God, she and Damon are both out there! Are they hurt? Did Shinichi get them?”
Bonnie shut her eyes and shook her head.
“Bonnie, stay with me. Stay calm. Is it Shinichi? Is it the police?” Meredith asked.
And to Matt: “You’d better check through the curtains there.” But Bonnie was still shaking her head.
Matt saw no police lights through the curtains. Nor did he see any sign of Shinichi and Misao attacking.
“If we’re not being attacked,” Matt could hear Meredith saying to Bonnie, “then what is happening?”
Maddeningly, Bonnie just shook her head.
Matt and Meredith looked at each other over Bonnie’s strawberry curls. “The star ball,” Meredith said softly, just as Matt growled, “That bastard.”
“Elena won’t tell him anything but the story,” Meredith said. And Matt nodded, trying to keep from his mind a picture of Damon casually waving and Elena convulsing in agony.
“Maybe it’s the possessed kids — the ones who walk around hurting themselves or acting insane,” Meredith said, with a side glance at Bonnie, and squeezing Matt’s hand very hard.
Matt was bewildered and fumbled the cue. He said, “If that S.O.B. is trying to get the star ball, Bonnie wouldn’t have run away. She’s bravest when she’s scared. And unless he’s killed Elena she shouldn’t be like this—” Which left Meredith the grim job of saying, “Talk to us, Bonnie,” in her most comforting big-sister voice. “Something must have happened to get you in this state. Just breathe slowly and tell me what you saw.”
And then, in a torrent, words began to spill from Bonnie’s lips. “She — she was calling him darling,” Bonnie said, gripping Meredith’s other hand with both of hers.
“And there was blood smeared all around on her neck. And — oh, I dropped it! The bottle of Black Magic!”
“Oh, well,” Mrs. Flowers said gently. “No use crying over spilled wine. We’ll just have to—”
“No, you don’t understand,” Bonnie gasped. “I heard them talking as I came upI had to go slow because it’s so hard not to trip. They were talking about the star ball! At first I thought they were arguing, but — she had her arms around Damon’s neck. And all that stuff about him not being a vampire anymore? She had blood all over her throat and he had it on his mouth! As soon as I got there he picked her up and threw her so I couldn’t see but he wasn’t fast enough. She must have given the star ball to him! And she still was calling him ‘darling’!”
Matt’s eyes met Meredith’s and they both flushed and looked away quickly. If Damon was a vampire again — if he had somehow gotten the star ball from its hiding place — and if Elena had been “taking food” to him just to give him blood…
Meredith was still looking for a way out. “Bonnie — aren’t you making too much of this? Anyway, what happened to Mrs. Flowers’s tray of food?”
“It was — all over the place. They’d just tossed it away! But he was was holding her with one hand under her knees and one under her neck, and her head was way back so that her hair was falling all over his shoulder!”
There was a silence as everyone tried to imagine various positions that might correspond to Bonnie’s last words.
“You mean he was holding her up to steady her?” Meredith asked, her voice suddenly almost a whisper. Matt caught her meaning. Stefan was probably asleep upstairs, and Meredith wanted to keep it that way.
“No! They — they were looking at each other,” Bonnie cried. “Looking. Into each other’s eyes.”
Mrs. Flowers spoke mildly. “But dear Bonnie — maybe Elena fell down and Damon had to just scoop her up.”
Now Bonnie was speaking remorselessly and fluently. “Only if that’s what’s just happened to all those women on the covers of those romance books — what-d’youcall-’ems?”
“Bodice-rippers?” Meredith suggested unhappily when no one else spoke.
“That’s right! Bodice-rippers. That’s how he was holding her! I mean, we all knew that something was going on with the two of them in the Dark Dimension, but I thought all that would stop when we found Stefan. But it hasn’t!”
Matt felt sick in the pit of his stomach. “You mean right now Elena and Damon are in there…kissing and stuff?”
“I don’t know what I mean!” Bonnie exclaimed. “They were talking about the star ball! He was holding her like a bride! And she wasn’t fighting it!”
With a chill of horror, Matt could see trouble, and he could see that Meredith could see it too. Even worse, they were looking in two different directions. Matt was looking upstairs, at the staircase, where Stefan had just appeared. Meredith was looking at the kitchen door, one glance at which showed Matt that Damon was entering the foyer.
What was Damon doing in the kitchen? Matt wondered. We were there until a minute ago. And he was, what, eavesdropping from the den side?
Matt gave the situation his best shot, anyway. “Stefan!” he said in a hearty voice that made him wince inwardly. “You ready for a little athlete’s-blood nightcap?”
A tiny part of Matt’s mind thought: But just look at him. Only three days out of prison and he already looks like himself again. Three nights ago he was a skeleton.
Today he just looks — thin. He’s even handsome enough to make the girls all go crazy over him again.
Stefan smiled faintly at him, leaning on the banister. In his pale face, his eyes were remarkably alive, a vibrant green that made them actually shine like jewels.
He didn’t look upset, and that made Matt’s heart twist for him. How could they tell him?
“Elena is hurt,” Stefan said, and suddenly there was a pause — an utter silenceas every person froze in place. “But Damon couldn’t help her, so he brought her to Mrs. Flowers.”
“True,” Damon said coldly from behind Matt. “I couldn’t help her. If I were still a vampire…but I’m not. Elena has burns, mainly. All I could think of was an ice pack or some kind of poultice. Sorry to disprove all your clever theories.”
“Oh my heavens!” cried Mrs. Flowers. “You mean dear Elena’s waiting right now in the kitchen for a poultice?” She hurried out of the foyer toward the kitchen.
Stefan was still coming down the stairs, calling, “Mrs. Flowers, she scalded her arm and leg — she says because Damon didn’t recognize her in the dark and jostled her. And that he thought it was an intruder in his room, and nicked her throat with a knife. The rest of us will be in the parlor if you need help.”
Bonnie cried, “Stefan, maybe she’s innocent — but he isn’t! Even according to you, he burned her — that’s torture — and he put a knife to her throat! Maybe he threatened her to make her tell us what we wanted to hear. Maybe she’s still a hostage right now and we don’t know it!”
Stefan flushed. “It’s so hard to explain,” he said very softly. “And I keep trying to tune it out. But so far — some of my Powers have been growing…faster than my ability to control them. Most of the time I’m asleep, so it doesn’t matter. I was asleep until a few minutes ago. But I woke up and Elena was telling Damon that Mrs. Flowers doesn’t have the star ball. She was upset, and injured — and I could feel where she’d been injured. And then suddenly I heard you, Bonnie. You’re a very strong telepath. Then I heard the rest of you talking about Elena….”
Oh my God. How insane, Matt was thinking. His mouth was babbling some “Sure, sure, our mistake” gibberish, and his feet followed Meredith’s to the parlor as if they were attached to her Italian sandals.